A Trump-supporting trucker suggested on social media that some truckers might boycott delivering products to New York City in response to a Manhattan judge ordering Donald Trump to pay $355 million to the state in the civil fraud trial against him, the New York Daily News reported.
A possible trucker boycott was promoted by Trump fans on social media following the February 16 ruling from Judge Arthur Engoron who found that the former president defrauded financial institutions and insurers by lying about his wealth for decades and ordered Trump, his sons, and the Trump organization to pay the state $355 million plus interest.
In a now-deleted rant on X, one trucker, Chicago Ray, claimed to have spoken to several truckers who were upset about the civil fraud verdict as well as the $83.3 million judgment against Trump from E. Jean Carroll’s second defamation case and said they were talking about not delivering to the city.
After the post went viral and X users began calling for truckers to boycott New York City in protest, Chicago Ray deleted the rant and posted a second video in which he walked back his previous comments.
In the replacement post, Chicago Ray said he wasn’t trying to encourage any truckers to boycott New York and said he deleted his previous post because his grandson was upset about it.
He explained in a follow-up tweet that he wasn’t trying to be a “leader of any movement” or a “figurehead.” He said he had just heard “chatter” and was sharing what he heard.
Despite Chicago Ray’s walk-back, Trump-supporting influencers on social media continued to promote the call for truckers to boycott New York City.
However, it remains to be seen if those social media influencers had any influence on truckers.
Since Chicago Ray’s initial post on February 16 and the subsequent social media promotion, there has been little indication that truckers who work for a living instead of inhabiting social media are following through on the influencers’ calls.